News in Brief with the Gapster Chief

A sideways glance at the latest shenanigans of the marketing world…

Aviva stakeholders are criticising the brand’s £80m celebrity ad campaign featuring Bruce Willis. Apparently, employing over-paid, middle-aged men does not guarantee an ROI for the business, but enough about the board, Bruce Willis rules!

Innocent has announced that it won’t be running its quintessentially English summer fete this year. Rumours that it’ll be running a Coke sponsored ‘chop down a rainforest tree’ day are unconfirmed at the current time…

Marks and Spencer are performing a spectacular u-turn and charging £2 less for their bigger size bras. A brave commercial decision if they don’t go bust as a result…

WKD is planning to launch into the cider market with its ‘Core’ brand. Why not just give up the Alco-pop aegis altogether and re-brand as the mouthwash it is?

NCP is pumping the smell of fresh linen into its stairwells in an attempt to mask less desirable odours. Surely providing toilet facilities would be a more effective solution to car parkers relieving themselves in stairwells…

Starbucks is offering a new loyalty card (with plenty of ‘perks’) to tempt coffee drinkers back into its stores. Call me cynical, but offering customers change from a fiver would surely be a better incentive…